> > source: > http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=94339 > > Stunned into disbelief as their 'normal' son is blamed > Robert Fisk in Almarj, Lebanon, meets the family of Ziad Jarrah, who > died trying to destroy the White House > 16 September 2001 > > When Ziad Jarrah climbed aboard United Airlines flight 93 from Newark to > San Francisco, was he planning to holiday in California or to destroy > the White House? The United States says the latter. His family begs > visitors and friends to believe in his innocence. His father Samir sat > beside me yesterday afternoon and opened his palms in that gesture of > innocence which is also a form of special pleading. > > "He called just two days before the plane crashed to tell me he'd > received the $2,000 [�1,400] I'd sent him,'' Samir Jarrah said. Still > recovering from open-heart surgery, he sat, half slumped, sick and > traumatised, in a green plastic chair beneath the vines of his garden. > "Ziad said it was for his aeronautical course. He had told me last year > that he had a choice of courses - in France or in America - and it was > me who told him to go to the States. But there are lots of Ziads. Maybe > it wasn't him? He was a good, kind boy...'' > > At which point Samir leaned forward, brought his hands to his face and > broke down in tears. > > Around us, a clutch of middle-aged men sat on identical chairs beneath > the vines, most of them members of the extended Jarrah family, all Sunni > Muslims, all appalled that a crime against humanity should stain this > tiny but wealthy village in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. A massive new > village mosque - I've never seen so big a mosque in so small a town - > stood scarcely 200 metres from the front door, but both friends of the > family and Ziad Jarrah's uncle insisted that he was neither religious > nor political. "He was a normal person, Jamal Harrah said. "He drank > alcohol, he had girlfriends. Only last August, his Turkish girlfriend, > Asle, came to meet our family here because she wanted to meet her future > in-laws. He wasn't able to come with her because he said he was too busy > with his studies.'' > > Too busy to bring his fianc�e to meet his family? Busy doing what? And > what was the $2,000 for? To continue studies at his Miami aeronautical > school? Or to buy air tickets for the Boeing 757 flight to California, > for him perhaps - and maybe for the other men named as hijackers by the > US government. It was Ziad Jarrah's flight that plunged to the ground in > Pennsylvania, apparently en route to self-destruction on the White > House, its passengers apparently wrestling with the hijackers, perhaps > with Ziad as he gripped the aircraft controls. > > Asle was in Germany, freely giving evidence to the Bochum city police > who had just searched her apartment, discovering "aircraft-related > documents'' in a suitcase belonging to one of three men named by > Washington as hijackers. All of them - something the Jarrah family could > not explain and would not believe - lived together in Hamburg. > > Asle had already reported Ziad missing, just as she had 18 months ago > when he disappeared for up to five weeks. And what she told the Jarrah > family over the telephone then gave them their first suspicion that > something was terribly wrong with their only son. > > For according to a family friend, Asle told the Jarrahs that her fianc�, > who would visit her each weekend from his university in Hamburg, might > have gone to Afghanistan. Jamal Jarrah confirmed to me that this is what > Asle had feared. "But it turned out that he had been moving from his > first university in Greifswald to his new courses in Hamburg and had not > been in contact with Asle during that time.'' Five weeks to change > universities? Without telling his fianc�e? Jamal hinted at some problems > between the couple at that time. But even so, would he not have told his > girlfriend his whereabouts? > > The details of Ziad's life are as simple - or so the family say - as his > death is obscure. Three other men have been named as hijackers of Flight > UA93 - Ahmed Alhaznawi, Ahmed Alnami and Saeed Alghamdi - and if two of > them lived with Ziad in Germany, his guilt seemed even more certain when > it was revealed that one of his fellow students was Mohamad Atta, the > Egyptian-born pilot who crashed American Airlines flight AA11 into the > World Trade Centre on Tuesday morning. "You cannot choose your fellow > students," Jamal Jarrah said. "He wouldn't have known his fellow > students before he turned up at the university.'' Or would he? > > Ziad was 26, born - according to his Lebanese identity documents - on 11 > May 1975, a village boy from a wealthy family. His father is a civil > servant in the Beirut department of social security, his mother a > schoolteacher. Ziad attended the evangelical school in the Christian > town of Zahle - about 12 miles from his home - and Samir paid thousands > to put his son through university. Ziad travelled to Hamburg on a > student visa four years ago, later attending the city's technical > university. He went missing 18 months ago, just before setting off for > the United States on his father's advice. "Whenever he asked for money, > I would send it,'' Samir said. "He needed money - he had a home in > Germany and a girlfriend to look after. He had to fund his studies.'' > > Last February, Ziad returned toLebanon for the last time to be present > during his father's open-heart surgery. "He looked after his dad and > went to the hospital every day," Jamal, the uncle, told me. "He was so > normal. His personality and his life bore no relation to the kind of > things that happened. He led a very normal life. He had girlfriends, he > went to nightclubs, he went dancing sometimes." > > And that, as they say, is the hole in the story. Everyone I spoke to in > Almarj told me that Ziad was a happy, secular youth, that he never > showed any interest in religion and never visited the mosque for > prayers, that he liked women even if he was at times reserved and shy. > > Mohamad Atta, his friend - or fellow murderer - was also known to knock > back five stiff drinks in an evening. If they were Osama bin Laden's > boys, they didn't behave like it. Bin Laden would not let his men smoke > cigarettes, and drinking alcohol would have led to banishment from the > ranks of his Al Qa'ida movement. Or was this an attempt to blind any > American intelligence agencies which might be watching the men? Who > would believe that a young man drinking in a bar - with a Turkish > girlfriend back in Germany with whom he'd been living - would be > planning to crash an airliner on to the White House with 49 passengers > aboard? > > But if the Americans got it right, then Samir's son boarded the plane > with a knife and a box cutter - a woman's last phone call revealed that > these were the hijackers' only weapons - and the intention to kill > himself along with the passengers, crew and entire staff of the White > House. What, then, did he learn at his Zahle school and the Christian > Patriarchate college where he also studied in Beirut? He was only seven > when the Israeli army surrounded him and tens of thousands of other > Lebanese civilians in the siege of Beirut in 1982. He was never involved > in the war, the neighbours told, never interested in the militias. > > "We are ready to co-operate with the authorities," Jamal Jarrah said > wearily. "We all regard what happened in America as a terrorist act. > It's a tragedy for Americans, for us, for all people in the world." > > There's just one small question. Jamal denied that Ziad had ever visited > Afghanistan. But when they heard from Asle that she feared he had gone > there, the family contacted friends in Peshawar - on the > Pakistani-Afghan frontier - and implored them to get Samir's son to > leave. Untrue, says Samir. And he says it again. "My boy was just a > normal person. He would never do this. Why, there may have been another > Ziad Jarrah on the plane." > > It's true that the Americans spelled his name wrongly - they called him > Jarrahi - but the men and women gathering at the family home yesterday > were wearing, most of them, black. > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > To sign Al-Awda's petition to terminate US aid to Israel go to: > http://al-awda.org/terminate_aid_petition.htm > > To sign a letter asking Intel Corporation to dis-invest from Israel go to: > http://al-awda.org/campaign/intel_letter.htm > ------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > ================================================================= > http://al-awda.org > To sign Al-Awda's petition to terminate US aid to Israel go to: > http://al-awda.org/terminate_aid_petition.htm > To sign a letter asking Intel Corporation to disinvest from Israel go to: > http://al-awda.org/campaign/intel_letter.htm > ================================================================= > Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition is the largest network of >grassroots activists dedicated to Palestinian human rights. 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